In regard to the Bay Area’s top draft picks, comments will go in order of selection …

Action: Cal DL Tyson Alualu taken No. 10 by Jacksonville.Reaction: He’s a very good player who will be a contributor for many years. But Alualu is not worthy of being the No. 10 selection or earning No. 10 money. (And so much of draft success/failure is about getting what you pay for.) Either Jacksonville is much smarter than everyone else, or this pick will be viewed a few years hence as a semi- or complete bust. The guess here: semi-bust.

Action: Cal RB Jahvid Best taken No. 30 by Detroit.Reaction I: Except that it’s the Lions, this seems like an ideal spot for Best: He sneaks into the first round but isn’t picked so high that expectations get out of whack … and there’s playing time available … and he has a talented young quarterback to grow with … and he’ll be playing on turf, which should make his speed that much more devastating.

Reaction II: Best is the fifth Cal running back picked in the past seven drafts — a fact that will no doubt help the Bears recruit more elite tailbacks in the future.Reaction III: In that same span, “Tailback U” has produced only four draft picks at the position; Oregon, one. You can make a mighty strong case that for elite prep tailbacks on the west coast, Berkeley is the best route to the NFL.

Action: Stanford RB Toby Gerhart taken No. 49 by Minnesota.Reaction I: About where he expected to go, and to a team that had shown keen interest. He’ll play with Brett Farve and Adrian Peterson and be used in situations that play to his strength.Reaction II: Would anyone be surprised if Gerhart exceeds the modest expectations placed on him (and a second-round pick and projected backup)?

Action: Cal basketball names Theo Robertson team MVP.Reaction I: Well, well, well. As someone who thought Landry Fields, not Jerome Randle, deserved Pac-10 MVP, I find it quite interesting that Randle wasn’t even named MVP on his own team.Reaction II: Nor did he win the Pete Newell Coach’s’ Award, the Senior Award or the Hustle and Spirit Award. All of which I find very telling — and makes me even more convinced that the coaches blew it. Fields should have been league’s POY.Reaction III: I’m not sure when a Pac-10 POY wasn’t his own team’s MVP, but it’s probably happened.

Action: Oregon reportedly hires Creighton’s Dana Altman.Reaction I: A bungled search that began with Oregon focusing on coaches who had won NCAA titles — the arrogance! … or cluelessness! … or both!! — ends six weeks later with the Ducks hiring a coach who’s never been to the Sweet 16.Reaction II: Altman’s a good coach who has been successful in the Missouri Valley. But that hardly guarantees success at the BCS level, as Todd Lickliter (Butler to Iowa) showed.Reaction III: If you judge hirings by the reaction of competitors, then this probably qualifies as average — hard to believe Romar, Howland, Sendek and Montgomery are up nights worried about Altman in Eugene.Reaction IV: I’ll be curious to see if the Ducks retain assistant Kenny Payne, who has been the key to their midwest recruiting success — in large part due to his relationship with William Wesley, one of the shadowiest “persons of influence” in college basketball.